The work was consigned today to the company Anteros and work will begin this week in the Codessais area, next to the Corgo river, which is expected to be completed by December 2026.

“We have absolutely obsolete indoor swimming pools, with a huge energy consumption of around 200 thousand per year. The outdoor swimming pools are also clearly no longer suitable for Vila Real, they are too small”, explained Rui Santos.

The city's current swimming pools are more than 40 years old.

For the mayor, combining the two swimming pools, as the spaces are currently separated, will also allow for “gains of scale and energy”, stressing that, with the same value, it will be “possible to triple the number of users”.

The future indoor pool will have eight 25-meter lanes, two of which can be extended to 50 meters, allowing for Olympic training, and will have the capacity to accommodate 1,600 users per day. The outdoor pool will have a capacity of 800 users.

The executive announced in 2017 the intention to move forward with the complex, but, according to Rui Santos, as a result of a “set of vicissitudes”, it was only now possible to consign the work.

In 2022, the Court of Auditors (TdC) refused the Vila Real City Council a visa to take out a bank loan of up to 15.5 million euros for the construction of the complex.

“We had to reformulate the entire process that led to the financing of this work. We obtained a visa from the TdC for this financing [November 2023], we launched the international public tender, we returned to the TdC to obtain a visa for the process that led to the award of the work and today we signed it”, said Rui Santos.

This is, according to the mayor, the “largest investment in a single project in the municipality of Vila Real”.

The investment in the complex is around 13.7 million euros. Next door, construction work is already underway on a lift that will connect to the campsite area, at a cost of around 1.3 million euros.

Despite the loan taken out (totalling 14 million euros), the president expressed confidence that the municipality could obtain financing in the next community framework for some components of the work.

In addition to the swimming pools, the project also includes the refurbishment of the entire park there, improving access to the Corgo River area, and turning the old pumping station into a museum.

The uncovered pools will not open this summer or next, but, on the other hand, the covered pools will remain open during the summer period.

“The option is clear, only in the summer is it possible to move earth in a relatively safe way”, highlighted Rui Santos, justifying the start of the project at this time.

After the work is completed, the indoor pool building will be demolished and the space transformed into a car park.

When asked about delays in ongoing works in the city, Rui Santos acknowledged that there have been problems.

“There are contractors who have not complied, but the works have progressed and are almost all finished”, he stressed, giving the example of delays in the sanitation works in Fonteita and Adoufe and Vilarinho da Samardã, with the installation of elevators (Calvário and metal bridge) and with the sports pavilion, whose work was rescued and a new public tender will be launched to complete the execution of around 400 thousand euros.